A Minute to Midnight

by David Baldacci

  “When I was an adult, I found out I was born in New York. It was quite an eye-opener, actually, because up till then I thought I was born in Georgia.”

  Myron nodded but didn’t comment on this.

  “You said they didn’t talk about themselves while sober. Did my dad ever talk about his past when he was drinking?”

  Myron set the magazine down and rubbed his chin. “Actually, he did. Your dad wanted to be an actor. At least that’s what he said. That’s why he was in New York, working on his career. That might be when he met your mom. That’s pretty much the only thing he ever told me about himself in the time that they lived here.”

  Pine let out a sharp breath, feeling filled with incredulity. “My dad wanted to be an actor? My mom was an international model? You’re talking about someone else’s life. They never told me any of that. Nothing.”

  “I don’t know why they didn’t. Maybe they think it didn’t matter. Maybe they thought you’d believe they’d made bad choices, or they’d given up their careers for their kids. I’m just speculating, obviously.”

  “I knew that neither of them had siblings. That their parents were dead. At least that’s what they told me. Is that true, or do I have grandparents or aunts and uncles I don’t know about? No one has ever tried to contact me.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t know anything about that part of their lives,” said Myron.

  “But why would she change her name from Amanda to Julia?”

  Even though Pine was ostensibly asking this question of herself and not Myron, he replied, “Maybe she just wanted to disappear. And it’s not illegal to change your name.”

  Pine glanced at the magazine. “Can I have that?”

  “With my compliments,” he said, passing it over to her.

  “Did they ever mention to you why they would pick a place like Andersonville to settle in? I mean, if my mom traveled all over the world, this is a little dull by comparison.”

  “Well, those places aren’t for everybody. Britta and I could live anywhere. But we chose here. Maybe your mom was burned out with all those hurly-burly, glitzy locales and just wanted something simpler.”

  She stared down at the magazine. “You’ve given me a lot to think about.”

  “What will you do with that information?”

  “I came here to try to discover what happened to my sister. Now, on top of that, I have to try to figure out who my parents really were.”

  “I guess you weren’t counting on having to do that.”

  “Who would?” she retorted.

  Chapter 28

  WHAT DOES LEE want to talk to Myron about?” asked Britta as she prepared the coffees in the kitchen. She had glanced out the window to see Pine approaching the pool, where her husband was lying on the float.

  “Just some questions about her parents, I would imagine. She’s a skilled investigator. She’ll know what to ask.”

  Britta brought the coffees and a plate of warm corn muffins over and set them down on the table before settling in across from Blum.

  “You were obviously close to Julia. What did you think of her?”

  Britta took a moment to collect her thoughts. “She was a lovely woman. I don’t just mean physically. In that way she was a stunner. So tall and lean. Gorgeous hair, her body and facial bone structure were perfect. I can see that Lee has taken after her in that way. But while she’s very tall, too, she’s far more, well, muscular than her mother.”

  “In the world she works in, being strong and fit is more important than looks. And she worked hard to build that physical strength.”

  “I’m sure. Anyway, Julia was complicated.”

  “How so?”

  “She never really talked about her past. But I could tell she was worldly from comments she made; she had obviously traveled outside the country. Myron told me she had even been a model. That didn’t surprise me. She had a model’s body and face and height. Although I don’t think she did it long. She couldn’t have, really.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She was so young when she had the girls.”

  “Do you remember when they were born?”

  “Oh no, they weren’t born here.”

  Blum remained stoic, though this remark had startled her.

  “The girls were around two when Tim and Julia came to Andersonville.”

  “Okay,” said Blum. “I’ve only seen one picture. It was just of Agent Pine and her sister. None of her parents. Agent Pine said it was the only one she had.”

  “Just the one photo? That’s strange.”

  “Do you have one of the Pines?”

  “Let me look. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  After she left, Blum watched from the window as Myron got out of the pool, toweled off, put on a shirt, and led Pine up a set of exterior stairs to the second level. Her boss looked surprised. Maybe Myron was giving her information similar to what Britta was providing Blum.

  “Here.”

  Blum turned to see Britta coming back and carrying a small snapshot.

  She handed it over to Blum.

  “I think this was from when the girls turned four.”

  The Pines were all lined up in a row. Tim on one end, the slightly taller Julia on the other. In between were Pine and her sister Mercy. Blum looked more closely.

  “Boy, you really can’t tell them apart, except Atlee is wearing pants and Mercy a frilly dress—at least I think that’s right.”

  “It is. Lee was always the tomboy. Mercy was the girly-girl. That was really the only way we could tell them apart. You almost never caught Lee in a dress, and certainly nothing that frilly.”

  “Her mother is extraordinarily beautiful.”

  “And Tim was nothing to sneeze at, either. I can tell you that during the summer when he was working outside in shorts and without his shirt on, well, some of the ladies who lived nearby would find excuses to come by just to sigh, myself included.”

  Blum smiled. “I think I would have been part of that group. Did they ever tell you anything more about their lives before coming to Andersonville?”

  “No, like I said, Julia kept things close to the vest, and Tim wasn’t much of a talker.”

  Blum bit into a muffin and took a sip of her coffee.

  “So how did you and your husband end up here?”

  Britta’s features softened. “Myron had a friend in the mining industry. He helped get Myron a job with the bauxite operation.”

  “And a computer guy liked working at a mine?”

  “He didn’t do the heavy lifting. His job was more scientific. In fact, he helped come up with a couple of uses of bauxite that they didn’t even know about back then. He’s always been an out-of-the-box thinker.”

  “How did you two meet?”

  “A blind date over in Huntsville, Alabama. I had just graduated from college and Myron had been out a year. He was very tall and nice looking but quiet. I had no idea he was a genius. He just seemed aloof. Most people didn’t understand him, but we hit it off. We’ve been together a long time.…” Her voice trailed off. “I thought I’d be a grandmother by now. I thought a lot of things would have happened that never will.”

  Blum put a hand on the other woman’s arm. “I’m so very sorry, Britta. I can’t imagine how deeply painful that must have been for you.”

  “Yes, well, as they say, life goes on. And we’ve made the best lives we can, considering. But there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of my children. And what could have been.”

  Blum gave her arm another squeeze and then sat back.

  Britta finally sighed, took a drink of her coffee, and looked up. “You and Lee seem to get along really well.”

  Blum, grateful for the change in the conversation, said, “She’s a great boss and a better agent.”

  “I’m sure you’re very proud of her.”

  “She’s worked for everything she’s got. The Bureau is still largely a man’s domain. But she jumped right in and
pulled her weight from day one. She doesn’t take crap from anybody, and if you want to be a misogynist around her, you do so at your peril. Believe me, I’ve seen it.”

  Britta glanced at the window. “I wonder how she and Myron are getting on?”

  “I assume he knows all the things you’ve shared with me.”

  “Oh, yes. Maybe more.”

  “Then he’s probably already told them to Agent Pine.”

  “Can’t she ask Julia directly about all of this? She’s still alive, isn’t she?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “But surely Lee would know that?”

  “I don’t know,” said Blum vaguely. “I hate to pry.”

  “Oh, I see.”

  “Jack Lineberry wanted to know,” Blum said suggestively. “He asked Agent Pine about her mother.”

  “Really?” said Britta.

  “Does that surprise you?”

  “No, it doesn’t. They were very good friends.”

  How good? Blum wanted to ask, but decided not to go there.

  “Do you enjoy working at the FBI?” asked Britta.

  “Yes, I do. It’s never a dull moment with Agent Pine. Right before she came out here she saved a little girl on an Amber Alert. The creep who snatched her was a convicted pedophile who had raped and probably murdered young girls in the past. Agent Pine took him on solo, and he got the short end of that stick. The guy’s going away for good now and thank God for that.”

  “She sounds very formidable.”

  “That’s a good word choice, actually.”

  “Her mother must be proud.”

  Is she? wondered Blum.

  Chapter 29

  PINE AND BLUM were at the Clink having dinner that night.

  Earlier, they had filled in each other about their respective conversations with Myron and Britta.

  “This must be very distressing for you, Agent Pine.”

  “What, knowing absolutely nothing about where I came from or who my parents really were? Or the parts that I was told just being lies?”

  “What do you remember about their pasts?”

  “Only what they told me, which was very little.”

  “What about after you left here?”

  “As I said before, we moved to a small town in South Carolina. Then years later my parents split up.”

  “Because of what had happened?”

  Pine played with her paper napkin. “I always assumed that was the reason. They argued constantly. It was about a lot of things, but Mercy’s name kept coming up.”

  “What happened after that?”

  “I chose to live with my mom. We stayed in South Carolina and my dad lived nearby. Then that all changed.”

  “How so?”

  “I was just about to start high school when my mother told me we were moving.”

  “Moving where?”

  “She didn’t tell me until the movers came. We ended up going to Texas.”

  “Did she say why?”

  “Not really.”

  “And did you ever learn where you were actually born? Britta was very clear that you were not born here.” She paused and added, “I was very surprised by that—but don’t worry, I didn’t let her see that.”

  Pine looked at Blum, easily reading her thoughts. “I know where I was born. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you that before.”

  “You have the right to keep your private information private, Agent Pine. But I hope you know that anything you do tell me will be kept in the strictest confidence.”

  “I know that, Carol.” She paused, marshalling her thoughts. “I was born in New York. They didn’t tell me that. I only knew because I had to apply for a passport when I was in college. I was into Olympic-style weightlifting and I had to travel overseas for competitions. I remember looking at my birth certificate, which I needed to get a passport. I had asked my mom for it. I just sat there staring at the piece of paper for the longest time. You see, up to that point I’d always thought I’d been born in Georgia. I really had no recollection of living in New York.”

  “Well, since Britta believed you moved here when you were around two, it’s not surprising you have no memory of New York.”

  “I asked my mom about it. She just sort of blew it off. Said of course I was born there and that we had moved to Georgia later. She said she had told me, but I don’t think I would have forgotten that.”

  “No, I don’t think you would have.”

  “It was tough moving to Texas right before I started high school. I’d made some friends, now I was starting from scratch.” She paused. “My dad wasn’t around anymore. I rebelled. I started binge drinking. Did some shoplifting. Smoked some weed. The police got called in. I was definitely going down a bad path.”

  “What happened to turn you around? Your mom?”

  “No, it wasn’t her. I mean, she tried to talk sense into me, but I wasn’t prepared to listen. I was too upset with her for moving and my dad not being around. And I was really missing Mercy. I felt alone, I guess.”

  “So, what happened then?”

  “This is going to sound stupid.”

  “I’ve seen a lot of life. So try me.”

  “There was a little carnival where we lived. It had a fortune-teller. I got my fortune read. I don’t know why. Anyway, the lady told me something.”

  “What was that?”

  “She felt my palm and said she sensed two heartbeats in me, not one. And she told me she thought I knew why.”

  Blum sat back. “Mercy?”

  Pine nodded. “It was like a switch got turned on inside me. I hit the books, started playing sports, worked my ass off to—”

  “—live your life and live your sister’s life for her?”

  “Something like that,” Pine said in a pained voice. “And in the interest of full disclosure, I came home from college one summer and my mother had gone. There was a note to me saying that she basically had to move on. She left enough money for me to live off and to pay for the rest of my education. I haven’t seen her since.”

  “My God,” said a visibly distressed Blum. “She just…abandoned you?”

  “Well, since I was an adult, legally that wasn’t the case. But in every other aspect of the word, yes, she abandoned me. I called the police and filed a missing persons report, but there’s no law against an adult going away voluntarily. There was no evidence of any foul play.”

  “But still, you must have been crushed.”

  “I was, for a long time. I looked for her, of course. Then when I became an FBI agent, I looked harder, all in my spare time. I still came up with zip. I keep looking periodically, but it’s like she vanished off the face of the earth. She might very well be dead.” Pine looked down. “It would just be nice to know one way or another.”

  “Well, it turned out okay. You’re an FBI agent.”

  “Jury’s still out on that,” Pine said ominously as she took a sip of her beer. “Despite what Dobbs said, he could pull the plug on me at any time. Why risk his own career for me?”

  “Well, I know he can be pretty tough, but he might surprise you, Agent Pine. He gave you this chance to get things right. He didn’t have to do that.”

  “You’re right. He didn’t.”

  “What did your mother do for work when you both moved to Texas?”

  “Why?”

  “I’m just trying to put some thoughts together.”

  “She didn’t work, not right away.”

  “But then how did she support both of you?”

  “She said she’d inherited some money from some distant relative.” Pine glanced up to see Blum’s incredulous look. “I know. I was just a dumb teenager. I believed what she said.”

  “But she eventually got a job?”

  “Yes. But she never really talked about her work other than saying it was just pushing paper around. And I was totally immersed in school and sports. I never focused on what she was doing at her job.”

  “Did she ever trav
el during that time? Go outside the country?”

  “No, nothing like that.”

  “And your father? Did he stay in South Carolina?”

  “Yes. I was really pissed about that. I mean, he was my dad. Mom explained it by saying she had gotten this job offer in Texas and needed to take it. And that my dad understood. But that didn’t make any sense, because, like I said, she didn’t start working right away.”

  “Well, she was your mother. You should be able to trust her. Did your father ever talk about her moving you to Texas and leaving him behind?”

  “When I spoke with him on the phone I could tell he was having to struggle keeping a job. He was drinking too much and maybe doing drugs, too. But he never said a bad word against my mom.” She looked down. “He always told me he loved me. That…that he was so very sorry about Mercy. But that he was glad that I was still in his life.”

  “And then?”

  “And then, when I was in college, my mom got a call. He’d been found dead. A suicide. I was told that it was in Louisiana in some motel, only apparently it wasn’t.”

  “That’s right,” said Blum. “Jack Lineberry said it was at your dad’s apartment in Virginia, which is where I guess he had moved to. But he never mentioned that to you?”

  “Never. Anyway, my mom went to handle the arrangements, or so she told me. I wanted to go, but she wouldn’t let me. He was cremated. She said she spread his ashes somewhere that was dear to him.”

  “Do you know where that was?”

  “No, she never said. And now I found out that it was Jack Lineberry who found his body. My mom never told me that, either.”

  “Maybe she didn’t know.”

  “He had to know she’d come down after my dad killed himself. But she never mentioned seeing him. And Lineberry said he didn’t see her then, either.”

  “And your mother left you shortly after this happened?”

  “Yes. Within a couple of months, in fact.”

  “This is all so strange,” observed Blum.

  Pine shook her head. “Here I am an investigator, trained to ferret out the truth, to tell when people are lying, to see things when they’re off. And now talking about my own life, there were so many red flags, how the hell did I not see them, Carol? I mean, how in the hell?”